Corbett flip-flops on Penn State sanctions

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett started his new year with a fairly stunning reversal of his early public reaction to NCAA sanctions handed down in connection with Jerry Sandusky’s apparent predilection to rape children.

You remember Jerry Sandusky. The longtime Penn State University football coach and one-time protégé to the late Joe Paterno? The man now sitting in state prison on dozens of criminal convictions of child sex abuse charges? The man who used his position as a famous coach of a famous Division 1 football powerhouse to lure young boys into his orbit?

Well, as the case wound down last summer, the NCAA decided to make an example of the university: A $60 million fine, a four-year bowl game ban, limits on football scholarships, and the scrubbing of 112 Paterno-era wins from the books. (It stopped short of suspending the football program entirely.)

Corbett recommended at the time that Penn State accept the sanctions as part of a “corrective process.” And it did. Penn State has already paid $12 million of the $60 million fine intended to fund child abuse prevention efforts nationwide.

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Now, Corbett is suing to void that particular manifestation of a “corrective process.” At a press conference last Wednesday, Corbett claimed that he began planning for the lawsuit soon after the sanctions were announced, his “corrective process” comment notwithstanding.

His reasons mostly boil down to economic impact, concerns that the sanctions will cost Penn State and Centre County businesses a boatload of money and that state tax dollars will end up being used to pay the fine. Furthermore, the NCAA, he said, never identified which of its rules the university broke.

Corbett claimed the NCAA had no business getting involved, despite the enabling and protective cover directly provided by the previously unassailable Penn State football program.

To the extent that’s debatable, the lawsuit will provide the venue. We’ll just note that the Penn State football program will continue this year, and millions of people will continue to attend home games. Any loss of revenue will likely be a matter of degree.

We’d also like to note that Corbett’s involvement in the Sandusky case — both as prosecuting attorney general and then gubernatorial board of trustees member — has cost him dearly in terms of support from Penn State alumni.

He faces re-election in 2014 with a weak approval record and a new Democratic attorney general who ran and won on promises to investigate why it took three years for Corbett to bring charges against Sandusky, during which time he also ran for governor.

If anyone needs an infusion of good will from an enormous and influential voting bloc, it’s Corbett. Paterno’s family did its part by rushing to Corbett’s side two days before his formal press conference on the lawsuit.

The big question, we suppose, is whether that voting bloc can get past Corbett’s previous but apparently malleable position on the matter.